Severe T-storms knocks down wires & trees in Buffalo

Another round of wild weather impacted the Buffalo Niagara region Friday. Severe thunderstorms affected many parts of the Western New York area early Friday afternoon.

At the Buffalo office of the National Weather Service, meteorologist Dave Thomas tells WBFO News a severe thunderstorm rolled across Lake Erie hitting the city of Buffalo and downtown tearing down power lines and knocking down trees.

Ominous clouds over River Road area in the Town of Tonawanda early Friday afternoon as a severe T-storm rolled in.

Credit WBFO News file photo by Eileen Buckley

“And it reached downtown Buffalo earlier this afternoon. This event produced quite a bit of strong winds that uprooted and toppled trees across the city of Buffalo,” said Thomas.

The weather service is trying to confirm if there was a water spout and funnel clouds over Lake Erie. "We haven't been able to confirm it," Thomas said. "We've had some pea-size hail. Primarily the damage has been straight-line winds."

WBFO News in touch with National Grid spokesman Steve Brady, who indicated the most of outages were scattered and affected only numbers of customers.

“We’ve got between 1,300 to 1,400 customers out – most of those in the city of Buffalo when the storm front started to blow through,” noted Brady.

Brady said power has already been restored to some customers. Barring any additional weather woes, he predicts power should be fully restored by 4 p.m. Friday.

Downed trees have closed a portion of Indian Church Road in West Seneca.

A cold front is moving through the region.

A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect for all of Western New York until 9 p.m. Friday. This means there is a risk of damaging winds, possible hail and heavy rains. The weather service said there is also a risk of flooding.